Assassin's Creed Odyssey

Assassin's Creed Odyssey is a new game in the Assassin's Creed stealth-action series, set in Ancient Greece. Take fate into your own hands and write your own epic odyssey during your journey to becoming a legendary Spartan hero. Experience an incredible story where every choice matters. Rejected by his own family, the main character must navigate a challenging path from an abandoned mercenary to a legendary hero, constantly uncovering new details about his past.

Action-adventure with third-person perspective and RPG elements, Assassin's Creed: Odyssey is developed by the creators of Assassin's Creed: Syndicate from Ubisoft Quebec, offering a well-crafted game world, new gameplay opportunities, and showcasing the struggle for artifacts of the First Civilization between the harbingers of future Assassins and Templars.

The action takes place in Ancient Greece, where the main character can be one of two characters chosen at the beginning of the game. The core gameplay has been redesigned to fit the era. Odyssey uses the same engine as Assassin's Creed: Origins, and as a result, the graphics have changed slightly.

Ubisoft has created a massive open world, the largest in the series. It is divided into 27 zones: the southern part of the Balkans, four neighboring seas, and nearby islands. There are various types of terrain: sandy beaches and snowy mountains, dense forests and olive farms, settlements with the architecture of ancient Hellas, and key Greek city-states — Athens, Sparta, Delphi, Thebes.

Each zone has political significance, offers its own set of quests, points of interest, and types of enemies. The leader system ensures local events — city-state rulers fight among themselves, seek help from the player, or can be killed by them.

There is enough space for large-scale ground battles involving up to 300 NPCs. A significant part of the map is occupied by seas, where battles also rage, and in addition, players can dive and explore the underwater world. Not all zones can be conquered.

Odyssey is a prequel to Origins, taking place four hundred years before the Egyptian conflicts of the Ptolemies. Traditionally, the plot unfolds in two aspects.

In the past, the player plays the role of a mercenary and learns about the Cult of Cosmos — predecessors of the Order of Ancients. Players can choose between the Athenian soldier Alexios or the Spartan warrior Cassandra — grandchildren of King Leonidas, respectively, fighting for Athens, which created the Delian League, or for Sparta, which leads the Peloponnesian League.

This choice will not affect the gameplay or the storyline; both heroes have the same skill tree, and switching between them is not possible. The plot's premise is simple: according to the oracle's prophecy, one of the heroes will bring misfortune to Sparta. In an attempt to avoid this, the playable character is thrown off a mountain but survives and becomes a mercenary. Twenty years later, he discovers that the Cult of Cosmos is behind the machinations and sets out for revenge.

The events of the present continue the story of Layla Hassan, who receives more attention — the player will acquire several artifacts of the First Civilization and communicate with its representatives in the form of mythical beings through a modernized Animus.

A full-fledged dialogue system has appeared with various response options — there are a total of 13 (you can lie, flatter, flirt, and so on). As the game progresses, the player makes decisions whose consequences are not always obvious and can affect the further plot or ending, aside from the main historical events. This gives Odyssey a high degree of replayability.

The leveling system borrows much from Origins — four categories of skills (general, warrior, hunter, assassin), by investing skill points, the player will find their style, or they can become a universalist. As the level increases, the game provides more powerful equipment with varying levels of craftsmanship.

Stealth movement and silent assassinations are still necessary; the game compensates for the difficulty of stealth by awarding more experience. If it comes to a fight, the combat system offers spectacular moves when the adrenaline meter is filled, alternating with regular sword swinging.

The player's base is the ship Adrestia, which can be upgraded, and the crew gathered determines combat capability and survivability. Piracy is allowed, but the higher the hero's notoriety, the more problems they face — the region's ruler may issue a contract for assassination, and other mercenaries will carry it out.